Oregon Ducks vs. Arizona State Sun Devils: love ‘em & hate ‘em

Oregon 43 – 21 Arizona State

Ah, the Thursday Night football game on ESPN. What a great way to start the weekend. And, with the start that this weekend had with Oregon’s 43-21 drubbing of Arizona State, this may be one of the best college football weekend’s so far this season.

If you didn’t get the chance to watch the game or check out the highlights from it, this will be the perfect recap for you.

With the Arizona State fan base and football program making this one of the most-hyped game in school history, many thought the Ducks would have a tough go of it in Tempe, especially when confronted with 70,000+ fans all clad in black in what was billed as Oregon’s first true road test of the season.

Though the Sun Devils did strike first after a fumble by Marcus Mariota, Oregon never let anything else get past them as they rattled off 43 straight points in a span of less than 20 minutes to enter halftime with a 43-7 lead.

Even if you hate the Ducks you have to admit, that is an impressive statistic.

The second half of the game did not present Oregon with any problem whatsoever as they benched their starters and coasted to a 43-21 victory.

What was a troubling start quickly turned into Oregon’s most impressive win of the season.

Oregon walked all over the Sun Devils on Thursday night. (Photo: Oregonlive.com)

Here are your love ‘em and hate ‘em from last night’s college football contest.

Love ‘Em

Marcus Mariota Strikes

Though he still has some work to do in the passing game (Mariota only threw for 46 yards and a touchdown on the night on 12 attempts), the young and talented quarterback showed off his running ability as he dashed for 135 yards against what was one of the Pac-12’s top defenses.

Mariota was efficient in the run game after mishandling an early handoff, flashing his speed on a night when Oregon put up 406 total yards on the ground.

If Mariota can operate the offense like he did on Thursday against the Sun Devils for the rest of the season, the Ducks will be favorites for their remaining contests.

Kenjon Barner Dazzles

Kenjon Barner, replacing the talented LaMichael James, took care of business on Thursday night when he made easy work of a stout Sun Devil defense.

After surrendering 7 early points to ASU, Barner made sure to put the Ducks right back in the game when he, on Oregon’s second-play of their next drive, took the ball for 71 yards and a touchdown.

On the night Barner accumulated a total of 143 yards and three touchdowns, impressive numbers by any means.

Barner’s consistent running ability has been beneficial to the Ducks this year, and will be crucial in getting the Ducks their fourth straight Pac-10/12 Title.

Defense Stands Out

I know the Ducks gave up 21 points on the night, but 14 of those were scored in the second half when the game was already won. For just about the entire season Oregon’s defense, and especially secondary, has looked more than impressive.

The Ducks had a total of four interceptions on the night, almost taking yet another score back for a touchdown.

Watch out, college football, Oregon has quite the defense in 2012.

Hate ‘Em

Second Half was BORING

The only thing that I hated about this game was that the second half of it was dreadfully boring.

More a consequence of Oregon being way too good than anything, I would like for one second half (and I’m really hoping not to jinx it) to be at least a little interesting.